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when astronauts leave earth for places

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like an asteroid or mars one of the

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things we're trying to learn is how they

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can grow their own food since it's

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especially important that we may not be

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able to resupply them with food

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especially things like fruits and

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vegetables that's where a facility

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called veggie comes in and veggie is

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already proven that you can grow lettuce

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in space so now the question is is it

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safe to eat

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the first test went pretty well we had

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three plants that grew really well and

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they were harvested on space station by

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commander steve swanson when he was up

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there and everybody really enjoyed

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growing the plants from from the

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responses that we've heard

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we did have a few issues with the

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watering system for veggies so we're

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actually working on trying to get those

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issues solved and grow some more plants

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for the crew so what did you grow and

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did it grow

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so we grew red romaine lettuce the first

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time um and and it grew um and we had we

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had three good looking plants that were

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harvested we were um hoping to have six

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plants and one never germinated at all

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so we're trying to figure out what

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happened with that packet um i think um

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we're growing the the veggies in we call

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plant pillows they're little grow bags

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and so we brought that one back to

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figure out why it didn't grow and then

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two actually died because they had some

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water stress but the other three um grew

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fine commander swanson actually watered

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the plants directly and and that helped

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to save them

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stationary for veggies the five other

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pillows work without any problem

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uh it's great to hear so now we're

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figuring out why the watering system

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didn't

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perform in the way that we needed it to

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and we'll be able to try it again but it

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was it was red romaine lettuce was the

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first crop and did anyone taste it after

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it came back

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no so we harvested

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them in june and they were frozen on

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orbit because we really wanted to figure

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out the food safety the microbiology of

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these plants to know

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are they safe for the crew to eat um

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there's not really an easy way to wash

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your vegetables in space and so

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we had them frozen in melfi in the -80

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laboratory freezer on iss and then

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brought back on space x4 so we got those

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back around the end of october and we

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were able to look at the microorganisms

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on the plants

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so i know you're in the middle of

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analyzing the lettuce that came back but

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is there anything you can share with us

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right now that you've learned sure

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so we did preliminary food safety

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analysis of the microbiology

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and that looked about what we would

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expect on station um the levels were

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fairly consistent you know they they

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they probably are low enough that the

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food would actually be safe for the crew

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to eat so we're working right now with

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the advanced environmental health and

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the food folks to to get to that point

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we also analyzed the plants in terms of

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antioxidants

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anthocyanins phenolics and elements and

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those all looked pretty similar to the

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ground plants there might be some

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differences but we had such a small

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sample number it's a little hard to tell

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we're doing some other things right now

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in terms of the plant pillows and doing

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the analysis of those but that's still

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in work there is no up or down in space

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so how do the plants know where to go

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right or grow

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i mean it's it's a very good point um

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plants are are really interesting in

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that they kind of key in on different

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stimuli so in the absence of gravity the

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shoots grow towards the light you know

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and on earth shoots occur towards the

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light so in veggie we have the lights on

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top and the chutes grow up

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the roots

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you know they don't know which way is up

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and down but they'll tend to grow

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towards things like water gradients or

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pockets of nutrients

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and they get kind of contained in those

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plant pillows but one of the things that

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we're interested in veggie is looking at

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can we can we do x-ray scans of those

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plant pillows and see the roots and see

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how it's different so that's that's a

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really interesting question because

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getting that root zone right is the

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biggest challenge we've had so far

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now will this help with crop production

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on earth

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well i mean we're learning a lot of

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basic plant physiology using the space

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station you know veggie

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is one thing but we've had years of

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really great experiments and we still

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have a lot of really great experiments

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going on and we have some more hardware

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that's going to be going up in the next

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couple of years a very high-tech plant

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growth chamber called the advanced plant

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habitat where we'll get even more really

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solid information on plant physiology in

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space

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and you know we're also learning about

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building better plant growth systems

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the lighting studies that we've done

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here on earth trying to figure out

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what's the most effect or efficient form

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of electric lighting are are being used

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in commercial greenhouse industries now

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you know the same types of led lighting

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that we're using on veggie

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is going on in commercial greenhouses

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around the world and in things like

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plant factories vertical urban

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agriculture so right there a lot of this

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nasa research you know is kind of

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translating into commercial

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applications that help us grow healthier

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you know more efficient more

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energy efficient more labor-efficient

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types of crop plants you know because we

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got a lot of people to feed on this

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planet so anything that we can learn

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can you know hopefully translate

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so what are the types of plants you're

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looking at next

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so the the next types of plants that

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we're thinking about growing

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are more leafy greens for for the near

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term because um they grow more quickly

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and they're something that the crew

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might be able to eat as a salad in you

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know in the next you know year or so and

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that would be ideal so we're looking at

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like small chinese cabbages and other

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varieties of leafy greens that would

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taste good be nutritious and grow well

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and then in a little farther out we're

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starting to look at dwarf peppers and

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dwarf tomatoes because we want these

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other components of the salad system you

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know a salad is not just lettuce so

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it'll be nice to have that variety as

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well

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and in case you're wondering the lights

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are purple they look a little pink but

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red plus blue leds equals purple

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because plants need those kind of

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wavelengths to grow now plants are green

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because they reflect most of the green

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light but absorb the red and blue so

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there are some green leds in the veggie

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as well and and that's really to make

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the plants look green and that's really

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for the crew and and not really the

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plants the astronauts really apparently

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seem to like the purple lights uh

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they've taken a ton of photos just the

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lights off and the columbus module and